54 
ALLEGED  ADULTERATION  OF  ANNATTO. 
without  difficulty.  The  author  has  made  experiments  upon  the 
solubility  of  tartrate  of  lime,  and  found  that  this  salt  requires 
for  its  solution  350  parts  of  boiling,  and  1210  parts  of  cold 
water. 
The  author  also  boiled  tartrate  of  silver  with  ammonia,  to 
ascertain  whether,  as  stated  by  Werther,  a  new  ammoniacal  salt 
is  thus  produced.  He  was  unable  to  find  anything  of  the  kind. 
—  Cliem.  Gaz.,  Oct.  15,  1855,  from  Archiv.  der  Pharm. 
ALLEGED  ADULTERATION  OF  ANNATTO. 
Mr.  Redwood,  in  the  absence  of  any  formal  paper  for  the 
evening,  made  some  remarks  on  the  subject  of  annatto,  and  the 
statements  which  had  recently  been  published  with  reference  to 
its  use  and  alleged  adulterations.  His  object  in  bringing  the 
subject  forward  on  this  occasion  was  principally  to  elicit  informa- 
tion. He  had  been  requested  by  some  parties  engaged  in  the 
commerce  of  this  article  to  make  a  thorough  investigation  of  the 
questions  relating  to  its  production,  preparation  and  use,  with 
the  view  of  correcting  what  these  parties  conceived  to  be  very 
erroneous  representations  which  have  been  made  to  the  public. 
He  was  enabled,  by  means  partly  of  specimens  from  the  Museum 
of  the  Society,  and  partly  of  specimens  obtained  from  other 
sources,  to  illustrate  the  different  varieties  of  annatto  as  met  with 
in  commerce,  and  to  point  out  their  different  properties. 
Annatto,  he  stated,  is  a  coloring  matter  derived  from  the  seed 
of  a  plant,  the  Bixa  orellana,  which  is  a  native  of  the  West 
India  islands,  South  America,  and  the  East  Indies.  It  is  in 
South  America,  however,  that  the  coloring  matter  is  principally 
manufactured.  There  are  two  kinds  of  annatto  imported  into  this 
country,  namely  : — 
1.  Spanish  annatto,  which  is  made  in  Brazil,  and  comes  chiefly 
from  Para,  in  baskets  each  containing  thirty  or  forty  pounds 
weight ;  and, 
2.  Flag  or  French  annatto,  which  is  made  in  French  Guiana, 
and  especially  on  the  island  of  Cayenne,  from  whence  it  is  ex- 
ported in  casks,  each  containing  several  hundred  pounds. 
These  two  varieties  of  annatto,  differ  considerably  from  each 
other  in  some  of  their  characters  and  properties.    Flag  annatto 
